Identity Politics in the Age of Genocide: The Holocaust and Historical Representation

by David Bruce Macdonald

In an era of globalization and identity politics, this book explores how Holocaust imagery and vocabulary have been appropriated and applied to other genocides.

The author examines how the Holocaust has impacted on other ethnic and social groups, asking whether the Holocaust as a symbol is a useful or destructive means of reading non-Jewish history. This volume:

explains the rise of the Holocaust as a gradual process, charting how its importance as a symbol has evolved, providing a theoretical framework to understand how and why non-Jewish groups choose to invoke ‘holocausts’ to apply to other events

explores the Holocaust in relation to colonialism and indigenous genocide, with case studies on America, Australia and New Zealand

analyzes the Holocaust in relation to war and genocide, with case studies on the Armenian genocide, the Rape of Nanking, Serbia and the Rwandan genocide

examines how the Holocaust has been used to promote animal rights.

Demonstrating both the opportunities and pitfalls the Holocaust provides to non-Jewish groups who seek to represent their collective histories, this book fills a much needed gap on the use of the Holocaust in contemporary identity politics and will be of interest to students and researchers of politics, the Holocaust and genocide.

274 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Johan Rehnstrom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting topic but I found the author being careless with his figures and missing references from time to time. The book could have been shorter too. his entire description of the Balkan war could have summarized in a page or two. I also found him too dismissive against the criticism against the people trying to compare what happened to the natives in America (North and South). Yes, many natives died over hundreds of years, but seriously, is that the same as the Holocaust? I am more in line with the author on other atrocities and genocides not getting the necessary airtime they should get. In very simplified terms: the western humanities are too focused on navel gazing, self hatred and of course kicking and criticizing the Jews and the state of Israel.